A new public high school in Leamington by 2015/2016 should be worth the wait, Leamington parent council chairwoman Lily DiCiocco said Friday.

The local public board announced Friday morning it has conditionally purchased land for a new $26.68 million school.

DiCiocco’s son was in Grade 9 back in 2007 when the first funding was announced for renovations at Leamington District Secondary School and he is now in university. Although the new school will also be too late for DiCiocco’s daughter in Grade 11 now, Friday’s announcement was welcomed by parents, she said.

“It has been a long, long haul. We went from a renovation to a whole new school and it was worth the wait,” DiCiocco said.

A new site means there won’t be a disruption to the students who are at the 60-year-old school on Talbot Street West. It is easier to accept the delays if it means a new school on a new site but DiCiocco said she’ll be more of a believer when she sees construction start. That could be in 2014.

The Greater Essex County District School Board announced a conditional purchase of 19.5 acres of land between 54 and 80 Oak Street West. The six parcels of land are west of the corner of Oak and Sherk streets near the H.J. Heinz plant and the Leamington Kinsmen Recreation Complex and will need to be rezoned.

The school’s rebuilding saga began in 2007 when the province announced $10.7 million for renovations. So much of the school, about 80 per cent, needed to be renovated that the board made a case to the province for money for a new school in 2009, said board spokesman Scott Scantlebury Friday.

In 2011 more than $26 million was announced by the province to build a new school and there was another delay in looking for land, Scantlebury said. With a new site the board will not have to consider moving 1,000 students for almost two school years during construction.

Scantlebury said the community has been very patient.

Because the purchases are not complete Scantlebury would not say how much the board expects to pay for the land. The board will be asking the province for that funding and will need ministry approvals for designs and building tenders, he said.

He said a new school for 1,000 students could be ready in the 2015/2016 school year. It will be near Margaret D. Bennie public school on Sherk Street and the recreation complex.

Leamington Mayor John Paterson said it is a perfect, central location that will put the students near trails and the pool at the recreation complex.

“I think what’s really important, the bigger picture of the thing, is now we’ll have a brand spanking new public high school here in the municipality and that will be just another drawing factor to have people look at Leamington as a place to live and grow,” Paterson said.

Paterson, 59, went to the high school and thinks his parents also attended the school that was built in 1952.

There were a number of renovations and additions after that which made it difficult to heat evenly, said principal Mike Hawkins. It also has a small gym that cannot hold all the students and is barely big enough for one regulation size basketball court.

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Essex MP Jeff Watson confirmed Saturday that the federally-owned Paul Martin Building will be sold to the city for $1 and converted into a law school building for the University Windsor, as previously reported by The Windsor Star.